Still Haven't Done Everything...

But I just finished my last report comment so yay!
What a mission, I hate sitting still for so long and I feel as though my butt has grown sitting here typing reports. It wouldn't help if I could type fast either, because it takes me so long to decide what I need to say about each child.
I said I'd post photos of our korowai, we did create them and I made a little video so I'm just going to pop it on here as well as the class blog. Pixelated as usual, but you'll get the idea.

They came out pretty ok really.
So I still have to put my Story Hui stuff on here, but I deleted the photo of my picture from my phone because I needed space to take photos of the grand kids and I hadn't uploaded it to Google photos. That is next on my list.
Thinking about next year, I am so going to continue with my maths programme... I can still make more changes and refine it even more. And we have our planning day on Wednesday so I am excited about what we might be doing for inquiry. I love inquiry!

A Quick Update

I haven't updated in a while so thought I had best get my butt into gear and write something. Actually, I am just trying to take my mind off reports for a bit.
These things have happened since I last posted.
Mantle of the Expert Symposium - we traveled down to Hamilton, I worried about driving the van and getting us there safely, and home again. Pam and I drove, and we made it there and back just fine. Parts of the symposium were really awesome, like getting to watch someone else use Mantle of the Expert with a group of children, and so powerful! I really liked that. Some of the workshops were less relevant for what I need for my class, but ideas for maybe the future were there, and I will keep them in mind. The korowai idea got me all excited, and when I mentioned it to my class, they were keen to make miniature cloaks that were personally meaningful to them. I have a kind of idea of how it will work in my head, and if we actually get around to making them, I shall post photos of what they turn out like.
Lucky died. This was just too sad to mention at school so I've only told Pam and Yvette, and every time I think about him I feel like blubbering. He was 17 and I guess old age just caught up with him really quickly. He went downhill fast, and I had to have him put to sleep. That was 2 weeks ago and I am still so sad. Now we just have 1 fur baby.
Assessment - I feel as though all I've done this term is assessment! And I've started reports. The assessment results though... wow! I am so pleased with the majority of what my class have achieved. Particularly in numeracy. GloSS results came out with every single child working at or above expected level! So I can only put this down to all the changes I've made this year to how I plan and teach numeracy. The growth mindset stuff, the problem solving groups, the word problems, low floor, high ceiling tasks, 10 x 5, and all the other changes I've made must have contributed to the end results. And I'm so happy about that!
Reading levels have also gone up, everyone is either where they should be or above, and my target learners for writing have made splendid progress (except William), so yay!
ERO are visiting our school this week. They arrived today. The Kapa Haka group welcomed the with a haka powhiri, and the school sang our school song and it was all very lovely. I hope they love our school as much as we do.
I'm going now, my grandson wants to call me to say goodnight - a recent thing he has started doing, and he gets very upset if he can't call!

Maths Stuff

Here are the vases of hyacinths we made for Flower Day, I told you they were mathematical!

I found this idea on pinterest, and I liked it! So I made these (it's just a pill box from the $2 shop) and the children have had heaps of fun with them. Just reading numbers up to a million is a challenge for some, while others have created games to play with the numbers. Some of my higher level thinkers have come up with some pretty good games too!

A rush to complete our kinetic art sculptures, most of them are finished and most of them do work, aside from the few who got carried away with the hot glue gun and stuck the wire to the post in the centre instead of only gluing the beads. These could so be mathematical!

Speech to Text and Fractions

Just a very quick update, and I am not sure how well this will work out, but after numerous attempts with various speech to text apps for William, I stumbled upon a free app for the ipad called Dragon Dictation. It actually seems really very good, and picks up speech relatively well compared to the ones I have tried so far. William does tend to make a little hum sound at the end of everything that he says, and speaks very quickly, so I need to find a way to discourage this without hurting his feelings, when he uses speech to text.
If successful, I shall make a copy of his next piece of "writing" and post it on the blog, and I really hope it works! I know that the rest of the class will love using it :)

The other app I found is Virtual Manipulatives, and I love it! It allows the children to move parts of a whole (fractions of circles or bars) in order to compare, add together, or put into size order. It's super easy to use and includes fractions, decimals and percentages. And you can switch between them. It is a very useful app, especially for people who like visual representations for things - like me!

Circle Blipp

We finished the Circle Blipp - almost - I did want to add the children using compasses because I thought that would be pretty cool, but we have run out of time. To check out what we have done, you'll need to get the Blippar app, enter the code 29581, and hover your device over the above image.
Next week is extremely busy, we have heaps happening and I am stressing a little bit but I will just have to take my own advice, and take things one at a time, because if I think about everything all at once I'll go mad. Which maybe I already am!
And we have observations on Tuesday (which I really don't enjoy - at all!) and then our class Festival of Learning in the afternoon. Wednesday is flower day and our class "spring craft" was very mathematical! I shall post photos after flower/ag day is over. Then end of term stuff... and I will have to start thinking about reports!
I took a small group of 6 children last Thursday to teach them how to use Hyperstudio, this was awesome, the children were fully into it and engaged for the whole day.
Also, e-ako maths is proving to be a hit with my students. they love it, especially William, so my doubts about it were unnecessary.
Following our Digital Tech meeting last Tuesday, I signed up for Quizizz, and I have had a bit of a play with it. I think I shall get creative during the holidays and make some quizzes. I haven't time right now to do anything properly, so it will have to wait. I think maybe a fractions quiz would be fun. The worst thing is trying to find lovely images that are labeled for reuse - I might have to get the camera out and take my own photos. Or maybe I could draw pictures.
Right now I need to focus on Monday - finish sculptures, complete persuasive writing, prepare for FoL...

Figure it Out

I attended another maths PD on Thursday, and while there we were given a task from a Figure it Out book, and I suddenly thought to myself, I've not even used one of those books this year! How bad is that? I used to always use Figure it Out, and I always had a bunch of different books at different levels on the classroom maths shelf for the children to use independently as well... how did I forget to use them? Maybe because there is so much online stuff, and you can instantly find and access resources and problems, and make stuff up that suits what you're doing in maths, that you forget about the resources you already have in the school.
Naughty me.
I will be gathering a little supply on Monday, for sure!
Another thing that I took away from this maths session was e-ako maths, which I think might be a worthwhile thing. I've not checked it all out properly yet, but I did create a class and I have registered my students. They now have their own usernames and passwords, so on Monday we shall try it out. I hope it is useful. I feel as though I have a zillion different usernames and passwords myself, and I struggle to remember who I am sometimes! Not really :) But the children already have Sumdog accounts, and KiVa usernames and passwords, and I am forever having to locate lost passwords for them, even though they've been told to glue this info into their notebooks. Oh well.
From what I saw of e-ako maths (yes I did log on as a student - with her permission of course) it looks relevant and is something that they can do independently. I like how you can have the speaker on and listen to the question as well. Makes it easier for children who are struggling with reading. But from what I saw, and this is only a little teeny tiny bit, it doesn't look super exciting. That sounds awful, I know, but if I were a child I would want it to be more exciting to look at. Maybe that's just me. I guess I shall wait and see what the children think of it.
And before I go... we have been working on our "Circle" Blipp. Jorgiah used Hyperstudio for the first time and loved it. Her job was to create a clip that showed the parts of a circle. It's only short but I'm putting it on here anyway, because I reckon she did really well.

                                   



And I still wonder why the word segment is often used when referring to a sector. Cheese sector! Sounds funny though. Even on a scratch ticket (and I rarely buy them, I just happened to get one recently) it had a wheel, and the instructions said you had to match numbers on the wheel "segments" which were actually sectors.

The Fibonacci Sequence

This is sooooo awesome and sooooo relevant because...

I did a problem solving activity the other day with the class, they were given clues to figure out the numbers on a set of combination locks. I really thought it would be easy for them, but it was more of a challenge (for them) than I thought. There were a few learners in the learning pit that lesson!
Anyway, once they had figured out the ones they'd been given, I asked them to devise their own set of 4 numbers and matching clues. Numbers could be anywhere between 0 and 39.
Off they happily went, creating problems and clues for others to solve, most using basic facts. I reminded them of other ways we could create number clues, resulting in how many days in... and letter places in the alphabet.
But Finn K created his with way more challenging clues. One of his related to the Fibonacci sequence. I was not sure that any of the children would know about it, and rather than me explain, I thought it would be great for Finn to be the teacher. Math talk came into it, the method had to be revoiced and repeated many times before I was certain everyone understood. The whole time I was thinking about how I could use this in art, especially since the children seemed quite into continuing the pattern way past the point of 55 (which was more than the 39 limit!) but anyway, then I found this awesome youtube clip and I got all excited about sharing it with the children.
Funny how I wasn't even looking for stuff about the Fibonacci sequence, but maybe it's only because I was aware of it, being a recent discussion in my classroom, that it popped out at me. So expect some nice spirally maths art coming soon!

Solution to Lack of Wall Space!

I know, two posts in one day, but it's parent/teacher interview night and I am waiting for my next interview and filling in time. I found this idea on pinterest, I pinned it and then I just screen captured it so you could see, and I am wondering if I'd be allowed to do this in my classroom?! I've decorated ceilings before, but the one I have in my class is new and I don't want to wreck it - even though I did pin those Paper Fish up earlier today!

Perhaps if I just cut card to the exact right size and stick it in each tile gap.

More Circles!

This was a maths problem solving activity I found on nrich maths. I was trying to pretend that I was a little interested in the Olympics by doing something with a sports theme!
This activity involved circles! So out came the compasses again. It was great to see the children working so well together, they were really into what they were doing. And I pretty much stayed right out of it, let them figure everything out on their own. Initially, groups were trying to draw circles in their maths books with diameters of up to 22 cm. Then they figured out that they would need larger sheets, which meant raiding the scrap paper box... I am actually pretty impressed that they remembered the things they had discovered about circles from previous tasks.

 The link to the activity we used is here Sports Equipment
 Anyway, I have decided to create a Blipp about circles, because they just keep popping up everywhere! Literally! Put your Maths Eyes on... :)

Thank you, Yvette!

A massively huge big thank you to Yvette, for showing me Blippar!

I took a study day today. I wasn't going to because I have too much going on in the classroom. But today was cross country, and it is cold, and I figured I may as well stay at home (where it is cold also) and create a Blipp!
Yvette discovered an amazing app called Blippar, and when she showed me her awesome Blipp and what could be done with it I just had to try it. I had some issues because I signed up for the wrong account to start with. If you get this for the classroom, make sure you get Blippar for education. Anyway, as of Wednesday, I have been able to use it without any hiccups so I am a very happy person. 
My first Blipp wouldn't work, I created one about kinetic art, useful for this term and the future. But last night I kept thinking about a topic and I didn't want to do the same one, and then I thought about our Zero Waste school, and I decided that would be a good topic with lots of opportunities to make links and include information etc. I was a good, honest person and only used images that were labeled for reuse, and I hope all of my information is correct. So here is my day's work. I will probably edit it some more in the future but I was eager to complete it and now it is almost 7pm and I'm still sitting on my backside in front of the computer!
To view 
Download the Blippar app (free)
In settings, type in the code 77600
Hover your device over the image below.

 
And check it out! 
You can move away from the marker image once your device has picked it up.
Thanks again, Yvette! I love this!  

Mantle and Maths

I finally finished reading Elephant in the Classroom, and I have finally sorted out where to next with Mantle of the Expert with my class for Term 3. The book had lots of interesting things to ponder, but I didn't get all excited like I did when I read Mathematical Mindsets. I have used a couple of ideas from it though. I tried one of the problems with my class - how many squares on a chessboard?
This was such a neat problem and the children behaved exactly as I thought they would. Ruby straight away came up and said 64, because 8 x 8 is 64. She seemed annoyed with me when I asked her to show me, I wanted proof, and while she was drawing up a grid on paper, other children were coming up with the same answer. This made her even more grumpy, she already "knew" the answer! After groups of children had all arrived at the same conclusion/ solution, I asked them to think about the question. I then had to push them further by telling them that 64 was not the answer. This resulted in a bit more thinking outside the box. Finally, Finn clicked, and shared the idea that there were 2 by 2 squares... 3 by 3 and then he was like, "oh man, that's gonna take ages to work out!"
Time run out and I suggested they think about the question in their own time. I was excited, I thought surely they would want to find the answer. Only Alicia found the answer, which she proudly presented to me the next day. "The answer is 204, it's 64 + 49 + 36 ..." I was so happy, I asked her to explain how she did it. She went online and got the answer, she did not understand why those numbers were added together, what they meant, or anything! So the question is still floating around, ready to be solved and fully understood. It's funny though, because there was a time when I probably would have said, "well done, you found the solution!" without actually questioning the child to see if they really do understand how and why it works.
Mantle never finished at the end of Term 2, we didn't close the company, and I didn't want to carry on, those little experts were beginning to muck around. So drastic action was taken.
First day back I placed a jar of ashes from my fireplace on the floor, with a label - T.K.T.B remains, and a few of their kinetic artworks scattered around.
A fire burnt down the building. Accusations flew around the room as a chain of consequences finally  ended (or began) with a storm. And we had no insurance. What a pity.
Luckily, an eccentric but wealthy woman saw our newspaper report, that we wrote as reporters,and has offered to finance rebuilding - if we open an art gallery.
Now I've got all my fun stuff rolled into one! The art, the maths and Mantle. Kinetic art is our focus  and will involve lots of technology, visual art and science. I have big plans!

I know this little clip is really pixelated and a bit crappy, but this is some super cool art maths inspired by Yaacov Agam's art. And this is a bit closer to what I hope we will be doing in the near future.

Sticky Notes & Circles

As you can see from the photos below, there was a lot of team problem solving, measurement and planning going on! Sticky notes were 75mm so they had to pick their window, then measure it, then make sure the design would fit. After numerous changes to original ideas, each team came up with a design. They then had to figure out how many they needed of each colour because I told them they could only come up and get what they needed once, mean eh?!

These are the completed designs, the owl one is mine so that doesn't count, I just wanted to have a little play! I emailed my daughter the photos so that she could choose the winner, she chose the pencil drawing a rainbow. The team deserved to win, they worked splendidly together!

This was an idea that I adapted from something I saw on Pinterest, so much fun using the protractor and compasses. Yes I did buy more,  now I've got one between 2, which is better than 6 compasses shared between 25 kids!

I am not going to explain this, it just shows that children like William and Riley are so very capable, and although not perfectly accurate, they did do this independently! No help at all from me or anyone else! So proud!

Worksheets!

I have been thinking a lot about what I said about worksheets and how I couldn't really understand why some children wanted them. It was only a few that wanted them. And I came up with the idea that maybe they like them because they are able to beat everybody else at completing them quickly and accurately - and that was always a focus for basic fact knowledge in the past. We had tested them over and over again, every term, every year, and report comments were always like "has worked hard to increase speed and accuracy in recall of basic facts..." It was all about number knowledge, speedy recall, and the children who were good at it could prove their amazingness by filling in those worksheets and getting all of the answers ticked way ahead of the ones who had to think about it. And we always praised their amazingness by telling them how great they were at it!
I just read the comments, and Dianne is right too, definitely safe, and certainly an easy option for some, those being the ones who wanted worksheets. Well I am happy for them to print their own off to complete in their own time if that's what they truly enjoy doing, but a sudoku or something might be more exciting!
It wasn't all of the children who didn't love maths, just a few. My last post may have given the impression that it was a huge percentage of the class, when really it was maybe 5 or 6 out of 25 who didn't enjoy it, but I need 100% loving maths. That is my goal! But it's OK, we did maths today and I told them it was art, (which it was really but it was maths also) and they all enjoyed it, to the point where I had to tell them all to get out at lunchtime because they weren't moving, so focused were they on their "art"... Sometimes they are doing maths without even realising it is actually maths. And they think it's fun.
This weekend I must remember to buy some more compasses - we love circles! And sticky notes too!

What the Kids Want!

After discovering that some of my class still don't like maths (sob) I decided to find out exactly what they liked, didn't like so much, and what they thought I could do to make maths a most enjoyable class.
To be honest, I was really a bit disappointed that they didn't all love maths in Room 7. I thought I was doing pretty good, with all the fun activities, the problem solving groups, the art!
But no, not so. After devising a survey that the children happily (and honestly) filled in, I found out...

• some - would like worksheets please! 
• we want to have a maths games day again (I used to have games day Wednesdays when my class were streamed)
• we don't actually use the homework reflection card (and I thought this was such a great idea!)
• maths in Room 9 was the best fun

So... the first thing that I did was ask what made maths in Room 9 the best. Responses included games, the homework, and that it just was! I talked to Yvette to find out what she does in maths, but things have changed for all of us since beginning the Maths PLD, so it was not going to be as it was when those children were in her class.
Today I observed Yvette's maths lesson so that I could see what maths now looks like in Room 9. I saw super engaged, enthusiastic children, problem solving, talk moves, everything that we have learned being applied, and I gained some very "fun" ideas that I am eager to try!
I'm not going to put all my observation notes here, Yvette will probably put them on her blog anyway so you can check them out there.
It was a most worthwhile observation and I am grateful to Yvette for allowing me to come and watch.

I have warm up games every session, but games day Wednesdays were always so loud! While the majority of the class were focused on practising strategies through games, reinforcing ideas and increasing number knowledge, there were always a few that would be off task, mucking around, and not doing anything to actually extend themselves. Or they would be arguing over turns on the computers (10 minutes, maths games only, 1 person at a computer at a time) but at least they were using time measurement and an analogue clock! And during this time I would be trying to work with a small group.
So from now on, warm up games, whole class, and the opportunity to play other games when they have completed set tasks.
The homework reflection cards that I made... it turned out that they didn't really know what to do with them! So we had a few practises and now that they understand, I think they will be better used! My fault for not explaining properly.
And finally, for those children who love worksheets, and I can't for the life of me imagine why, I have shown them websites where they can select all the worksheets they could possibly want. Which leads me to another thing... next year I think that the children won't even need maths books. They are rarely used now, and a scrapbook would be a much better option.
Before I go, the fun thing we did do this week, totally unplanned, was begin a Post it note challenge. This was inspired by my daughter's email with a photo, she works for Office Max, showing a window decorated with Post it notes to create a big Angry Bird. Warehouse Stationery tried to outdo them with a Pacman design, and now it is a Post it note war. My class wanted to do their own, which they have started on using the grids in their maths books. I now have big plans for area and perimeter with this... there is so much we can do!
And I devised a geometry/measurement assessment task that just worked perfectly, I'll put a photo of that on next time because that's a whole new story!

Peer Observation

This was carried out a while ago, the 18th May. I never thought to copy it to my blog at the time, but here it is.
Observation notes from observation by Pam...

Kelly, first of all, thank you for allowing me to observe you in your wonderful learning environment.

These are the points I noted, while observing you working with Tekyllah and Kahla on 5 by 10. Or is it 10 by 5? I haven’t clarified this yet!

The focus for today was on subtraction facts and doubles.

• The two girls were totally engaged through out the whole session.
• You were using lots of relevant maths language.
• Clear instructions.
•  Wait time given.
• The girls were verbalising the maths they were doing.
• Lots of encouragement.
• You had a variety of quick, fun, maths games, that linked to the skills the girls were working on.

I will certainly be making the doubles game up for Xion, and will get to you the subtraction games that I have found successful.  I also agree with you that you need to pick the group carefully with this strategy, as some children don’t get a chance to answer as they process their thinking slower than some others.

Thanks again, Kelly.

I found Pam's feedback/feedforward really helpful. It's nice to just be able to discuss what you're doing and why with someone else, and to get ideas of where to next. Pam has great ideas and I appreciate her sharing them with me.
I keep changing and modifying the tasks, games, groups and individuals I work with for 10 x 5, and use it with Will for spelling as well. I know he gets extra assistance with Shelley and Kaye, but he just gets so excited about his weekly spelling test that we have to have our little daily practise! My class are so considerate when I am working with Will, they just get on with things quietly and let him have his time with me, one on one. Sometimes he follows me around on duty so we can verbally practise those rhyming words. And he will tell you all about his growing brain if you ask him about it!

Reflection

Tonight I am just quickly putting my thoughts down, we had Maths PD today and I need to write some things! I keep thinking about the quote in the reading we had by Richard DuFour, "Rather than listing what students need to do to correct the problem, educators need to address what they can do better collectively." I think that we do need to think about what we are doing, and I found the idea of intervention interesting. I like the idea of identifying struggling students through exit tickets (I've just started using these) to see exactly what needs to be focused on, and that intervention should be timely, directive, diagnostic and systematic. I admit that I am finding it hard to think of putting all of the blame for struggling students back on the teacher... the ones who don't or won't put in any effort at all... so now I'm thinking there has to be ways to get those children involved, eager to learn, wanting to contribute, and about all the fun things that we do in class... I guess you really never do get to a point where you have the whole thing perfected. I don't know whether or not I am making sense, but I'm posting it anyway. And one other thing that leads back to us as teachers continually trying to find ways that work... if everyone is capable of succeeding in maths (growth mindset - and yes I truly believe we all are) then why are there so many people (adults) out there that seem to not have a clue? Is it the way they were taught, they way that they learned, with their fixed mindsets? Is it always the teachers fault? And if, as adults, they still don't get it, why are they not trying to learn now? Why aren't we (as adults) taking responsibility for our own learning? I never want to stop learning.
And that all sounds like a load of waffle when I read it back but never mind, it's what I am thinking, even though I'm not really communicating with clarity and precision.

This was the awesome thing I took away from today's session...
click the link  Have you got maths eyes?

Area & Art

I saw a picture on pinterest and decided I could do this with the class as an art type activity (which I originally intended for early finishers) but then once I showed it to the class and started talking about how the squares for their creations would need to be accurate (we decided 6cm was a good size) it suddenly became a maths session. Folding the squares into the right shape meant it covered 1/4 of the area, we started with 8 squares by 8 squares, each one 3cm x 3cm covering the black background. I asked the class how big the background needed to be ( I had A4 black paper) so then they had to work out the area their work would cover. I had to get bigger sheets of black paper, and Finn and Sloan decided to go even bigger, making theirs 10 x 10.
Not only did we cover area, but perimeter and some pretty good multiplication strategies as well. 8 x 3cm, then 24 x 24 to get the area. 24 x 24 was interesting, one child suggested 20 x 20 + 4 x 4, so 416. The class were happy with this answer. I questioned them about this, but we run out of time. It wasn't until the following day that someone clicked, and was able to see where it was not right!
The larger sized one on display was easier for them to work out, and lead to discussion about the area of other shapes. Groups used the maths reflection cards at the end of the session to share new learning, think about what they have learnt, and what they would like to know. I collated their answers because they were just a little bit hard to read! Awesome because now we can look at the area of triangles and circles... and I love circles!

                                                                    Reflections

Our Little Maths Book!

I read The Grapes of Math to my maths class every year,  and it is always discussed, and the children like to read it to themselves afterward. This year, I read it to my class, and I guess because we had been working with arrays, and looking at patterns, and focusing on a variety of low floor, high ceiling problem solving activities, the discussion was just so much more in depth. I think the children could relate to, or understand the maths better, knew exactly what was being shown, and could identify the groupings, arrays and patterns. So I said, thinking aloud, "I wonder how hard it would be to make our own book?"
Here is the result of that wondering...

Ice Cream

Lots of maths this week. I chose a problem from youcubed, the ice cream problem, where children were to figure out how many ice cream options they could choose from, with a 2 scoop ice cream and 10 flavours. Easy enough to extend, something that everyone is capable of solving, definitely low floor, high ceiling...
It was an eye opener!
It is true that they worked on it, and were completely focused, for a very long time. 2 sessions later...
3 groups found the solution. Two groups realised they had made "terrific mistakes" during the discussion/presentation of ideas and strategies used at the conclusion, and the other 2 groups could not see their error until we looked at Tekyllah's strategy. Hers was to use blocks to represent the different flavours. She set them out on the floor in order, mixing each two flavours and creating a very cool pattern. When she was satisfied that all combinations were represented, she counted them. This was interesting, because she counted 1 to 1, and got 56. When I asked her how she knew her answer was correct, she recounted, again 1 to 1, and got 55. So then she had to check, and started all over again! I had to ask if she could think of a quicker way to count them. We got it down to 10 in the first row, then counting in 2s.
But it made me think, the pattern is there, I'll put it to the rest of the class and see if they can provide some different strategies. The opportunity to write their ideas on sticky notes made this a success! I had so many children submit ideas, that we couldn't fit them all on the sheet of paper.
So the original lesson ended up extending to 3 sessions, along with an add on question

that I found online, and really liked because there is no right or wrong, but justifying choices was the point of the exercise, and the children came up with some very excellent reasons for their choices.
And the ice cream theme carried over into literacy, we read Bleezer's Ice Cream, a poem by Jack Prelutsky, which the class used as inspiration to write their own poetry. I was so happy, every single child in Room 7 finished their writing, and Will finished before some of the others! I set the criteria so that alliteration was used for each new ice cream flavour, and
Must do - 5
Should do - 6
Could do - more
I had several children try to do the whole 26 letters of the alphabet, and some attempted to make theirs rhyme as well! I was very impressed. When I told Will his brain must be growing because he'd challenged himself, he was so happy, he was bouncing up and down on his feet and had the biggest smile on his face! Then he went away to practise writing capital G, (I didn't even realise he didn't know how to do them!) and delighted in showing me he'd learnt to form this particular letter.

Tekyllah counting her "ice cream" flavours

The pattern that created a new "problem"

 

                                               

A Little Reflection and a Bit of Art

We had a Maths/Digital Tech meeting today, and I have a lot to think about. I'm not going to write it all down right now, but as things happen I will post them.
One thing that I will mention, and that I was thinking about in the early hours of the morning (along with a jury summons for a 9 week trial - good grief, what teacher could take that much time away from their children?) was how much my attitude towards mathematics has changed. Looking back, when we first began Maths PD, my biggest concern was how much paper I would be wasting! How ridiculous. I spoke of this today, and although it didn't really relate to what we were discussing, I just had to say it. Now I actually have the children and their learning and maths and my teaching as priorities. Yay, glad I got that sorted out!
Art - Extension Group, I could just do this all year and be a very happy teacher! I very quickly wanted say that the digital technology PD is crossing over into Visual Art, I have so many ideas and it's another way to extend/accelerate learning. Admittedly, this group are a capable bunch of artists, but I reckon I could do similar with any children within the school. I bought some frames for some posters, the posters didn't fit (that will teach me for assuming they were A3 and not actually measuring - less than 1cm out but I didn't want to trim them) so I used them for the Art Extension Group's artwork. The apps I used were Photo Lab to create the postage stamp collage of corrugated card artworks, and Book Creator for the comic strip dragon sketches. The sketches were designed to be photographed with the ipad, and the photo had to include the student's hand interacting with the dragon. These are the results.

Leni with the collage. I love Photo Lab!

This is a funny angle, but the photo I took straight on had my reflection in it!

A Bullet Point List!

So here it is, a list of what I am doing to accelerate learners in Room 7. It's late, but I have to do things immediately that I know they need doing, or else everything will get to be too much. You know how it is, and if I procrastinate I might get like overwhelmed, or something!

• Growth Mindset - obviously my top of the list, number one "thing" because it is so brilliant and I have already made drastic changes in the classroom. Changes include Maths (my whole programme has changed), homework, the language we use, my expectations... the list goes on!
• Class Dojo - is being used to promote growth mindset and the children love the little monsters, points rewards and the videos which have helped to explain how the brain works.
• Mixed Groups - for everything now! And the groups change from day to day. It's working really well, everyone is working with everyone else, and learning with and from each other. 
• Apps - I can't just focus on one, I have a whole bunch (funny word, bunch, rhymes with lunch) that I absolutely love, and the class are loving too. Most of them I have mentioned in previous posts, but a couple more that I am really liking are Book Creator (I bought the full version - so worth it), Photo Lab (great fun to use and am getting inspired for some art with it), Daily Monster (fun for the kids and can get creative with it), 123D Sculpt and Creatures (mentioned earlier and getting the hang of creating and using 3D), Pottery (since we can't afford a kiln and all, this app is pretty ok in the meantime!), Number Rack (like an abacus for maths), Think 3D Free (connecting cubes, tetrahedra and octahedra), Numberkiz (similar to Show Me, but a bit fancier, both are cool but you have to sign in and save stuff online - which I wish you didn't have to), Reading Eggs Spelling (awesome for all levels in our class),  and Sock Puppets (the children love presenting their ideas with this), Augment (AMAZING 3D stuff - you just have to check it out, possibilities for using in class are endless). That was more than a couple! Sorry!
• Aurasma (special mention app) - is just so cool, we've been going round in circles putting little videos (including sock puppets and tellagami explaining maths strategies) onto our displayed maths problems, and as we get deeper into our Mantle of the Expert this term, we will so be using Aurasma with that as well. Also the hologram maker app because it's a super presentation tool, and we like it.
• 10 x 5  - I will try again with a different curriculum area, and perhaps try what others are doing, using it with the whole class. Last time I saw progress from 1 child out of the 5 I worked with. This time I reckon I can do better! 

I know I should probably just choose one or two things and focus on doing them really well, but there are just so many new things to try and I want to try them ALL! 

Mathematical Mindsets

So I finished the book, Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler. I am going to buy my own copy. 
I feel so inspired, and excited about going back to school and trying out the ideas I have read about. I will be making quite a few changes to my numeracy/mathematics planning and teaching. There are just too many notes and reminders and photos of text on my phone (Thank goodness for Google Keep!) that I thought worthwhile remembering, I haven't time to talk about all of them right now, so I'll bullet point with a few notes.

• Assessment ideas - Traffic Lights and Exit Tickets, Two Stars and a Wish (peer) and Reflections for homework. I loved all of these ideas and found the information regarding homework and the negative impact it has on children (and families) very interesting. I don't recall major homework issues when my daughter went to school, or my stepson, but maybe they just didn't do it!
• Assessment for Learning - there's a whole chapter on this, I am quite keen to try out some new methods.
• Maths Basic Facts - mindless practise and speed drills can be damaging, being successful at maths is not about recalling facts at speed, and works against the development of a mathematical mindset
• Gifted - there is no such thing as a "math gift" or "math brain"
• Mistakes - are SO GOOD! If we aren't making mistakes, or struggling, then we aren't learning
• Comments - that we give to the children can be damaging too. Growth mindset comments are specific to the task and not how wonderfully smart the child is. If a child is told that they are smart, and then they face a challenge, they will think they aren't smart after all and give up easily. They need to make mistakes, face challenges and persevere.
• Depth over Speed - being slow to work things out, and using materials, is all good! Yay for me and my own funny methods when I am trying to work out something more complicated than what I usually deal with in the classroom. I must admit, I did try some of the activities in the book to see if I could work them out myself. Some were definitely a struggle. And I had to look up what the "nth" term meant - and then try it out!
• Mixed ability grouping - it was awesome to read and discover evidence of how and why this is a good thing, especially since we have stopped streaming our senior classes.
• Activities - Low floor, High ceiling, and I really am pleased that there were examples in the book, and ideas, apps and internet sites to visit. This is going to be a huge help with planning to cater for everyone, engage and motivate all learners.
• Times have changed - future employers (even now) don't need employees who can recall basic facts and add numbers quickly, computers can do that. They need people who can problem solve, pose questions, work collaboratively, use logic and reasoning...
• Art - oh yeah! That's made me very happy, evidence to prove that art and maths link together beautifully (even though I already knew this, it's nice to have evidence to back my ideas up!) And also drawing problems and doodling.

I did a lot of thinking as I read the book.  And I am still thinking now (pretty reflective eh?!) and what I am thinking is too much to write about. But now I worry that I have made damaging comments in the past, and I worry that I have made assumptions about students because of they way they work, their levels, and what I thought they were capable of. I worry about the way I've set up the groups, and the tasks, and that I've given fixed mindset feedback/feedforward. 
So yes, I will be making changes. I hope it has a very positive impact on my class.

Digital Tech

It is the holidays and I kind of wish I was still at school! The last week at school was exciting for me, I bought the full version of Tellagami, and Sock Puppets. And then I got the Aurasma app, oh my gosh, the best thing ever, too much fun and I have already decided how I will use it effectively with maths... my brain won't let me sleep at night as I keep coming up with ideas. Thank goodness for Google Keep, I can note my ideas quickly. I've even taken photos of text I want to remember (currently reading Jo Boaler's Mathematical Mindsets, absolutely brilliant, will do a separate post about that as soon as I've finished the book!) and my notes on Google Keep are prolific.
Aurasma is amazing, even more so once I figured out how to let others see. After practising with grandson's calendar art and insisting my daughter download the app immediately so she could see my video message, I discovered you have to follow to be able to see it. Good to know. Now I have about 10 messages linked to Logan's 2016 calendar! 
But then I wanted to figure out how the 4D thing works, and wondered if I could create my own. I found an app called Augment. It is super incredible. Truly an amazing thing that I need to play with a bit more so that I can actually use it in the classroom, rather than just going, "wow, that's amazing!" I am not sure how to make my own 3D models to put on it, although there are already educational ones on there. I got another app called Sculpt and had a go at making a 3D model, it's like working with digital clay I guess. Lots of fun to play with but I don't know how to put it on Augment... yet! (I have tried a couple of things, unsuccessfully so far, but mistakes grow my brain so it's all good!)
Speaking of growing brains, I did get Class Dojo as well, and the little videos are really great for promoting growth mindset - thank you Leslee! I'm still hyped up about growth mindsets, and the Jo Boaler book is making me think about it even more.

The video was a rush job, we made it really quickly on the last day of school because I was too excited and wanted to try out Aurasma before the holidays. Sometimes I think I get more excited about these things than the children do! I suppose in this day and age they are exposed to so much more, have so much more and technology is so much more advanced. I zipped down to Auckland at 4am on Tuesday to look after the younger grandson who was too sick to go to daycare, and even he, at the age of 14 months, plays with the ipad and apps on the phone, and is rather fascinated with the xbox controller, when he can get his hands on it. Logan is 3, and he is very clued up with technology. Only geeks went to computer class when I went to school, I preferred to spend my time either in the art room or smoking behind the bike shed, listening to Motorhead or Iron Maiden... on tape! How times have changed. I really love technology. And I still love art, and I still love Motorhead (R.I.P Lemmy) and Iron Maiden, and e cigs are way better than smoking!

Tellagami Hologram

Putting this on so you can see... and thinking of a million ways I could use it! If I buy the full version of the tellagami app, I can type in the text and then it will use a different voice, and that would be nicer than hearing my own! Or I could do a sock puppet one, or animate my own with hyperstudio... too many possibilities!

Inspired by Apps!

I have a whole lot to post, and I need to get into the habit of posting right away, because now I have a whole lot to say and it's not all nice and orderly and I will miss things out!
Perhaps sub-headings will be the way to go...
Maths PLD
was awesome! I came away feeling very excited about the things I learnt, and wanted to share the Mindset reading with the rest of the staff (so I did) and I hope they liked it too. Since then I've found loads online about it, have considered this way of thinking in the classroom, and I have begun to introduce the idea to my class. I love it. Pam has a book by Jo Boaler which she offered to lend to me once she has finished reading it, thanks Pam! I don't yet feel that I know enough about it to fully use it... yet, but I will learn (and grow my brain!). Aside from that, I also found the information about active listening very helpful, and have used this in the classroom already. We created a poster which has been a great reminder for the class on how to listen. 
Digital Tech PD 
I wasn't really focused during our staff meeting, darn tummy bug! But I love google keep, padlets and that we are going to link maths and digital tech, and focus on our appraisal inquiry. Yay. And after all this time, years, of trying to stay anonymous and not have my real name or photo online, I ended up with my name on my class google account. It's ok though, I'm still refusing to have facebook!
The IDEAS session 
was a brilliant, motivating and inspirational afternoon, I enjoyed every second. I really did come straight home and download apps that I couldn't wait to try out. And I used them in class the next day! The Elements 4D app is amazing! I want to know how they made it! Lot's of exclamation marks sorry. But it really is super cool. I posted a video of the class using it on the class blog. 
I also have found an app that allows me to create my own hologram, so I got all carried away and made a video with the tellagami app and turned it into a hologram for the class for Mantle of the Expert - the commission from my fictional charitable organisation. I just know the children will want to make them too!
I put a padlet on the class blog after seeing Yvettes and the brilliant way she used it. 
Other things I love - popplet, reading eggs (for spelling for Will - who incidentally has achieved 8 out of 8 in spelling two weeks in a row - admittedly, the words all rhymed, but it's a start!), and puppet pals. These are all things we can use in our classroom. 
And the Mural
is almost complete! When I'm out there, painting, I feel like I could paint forever! The children involved in the designing and painting were just wonderful. I will complete it during the holidays, I just need to get up the ladder and paint another row of bricks and add detail to the lettering and put the names on. 

Target Readers - and where is Ma'uke?

I set up a little target reading group, organised a new scrapbook for recording tricky vocab, questions, summaries of text and titles of what we've read, and began guided reading sessions with them. I chose 5 children to work with, Will, KK, Kahla, Keenan and Tekyllah. So far we have taken a lot longer than the rest of the class to get through our reading, but discussion has been good, and they are beginning to realise that if they don't speak up when they are confused or have questions, I will find out.
Today we read a school journal story. Ma'uke was mentioned, the place where 'Papa' grew up. None of them questioned this, so in the end I asked if they knew where it was. In the South Island was one response. Another was somewhere in NZ. I asked them to look at the illustrations as they may provide a clue (the people were wearing lavalavas, they had flowers decorating their mirrors, and tivaevae patterns on their furnishings). So one of the group responded with... New York!
I suggested using the atlas to find out. The first thing they all did was turn to a map of NZ. And then painstakingly search for Ma'uke within NZ. Eventually I had to say that perhaps there might be an index that will help us. This was located at the back of the atlas, they discovered, and after quite some time they also realised places were listed in alphabetical order! Finally, someone reached the word we were looking for. I asked which page we could find the map on, and was promptly given... the map coordinates!
I could have just given them a laptop and said look it up online, but where's the fun in that?  So much learning!
The rest of the class are keen to work in groups now too, so I have decided to group them mixed ability, even though they are all reading at or above expected levels, and they can have their own scrapbooks too (I think this is what they actually wanted) and they can carry on with reciprocal reading and the prompt cards for this, as it has promoted a lot more in depth discussion around texts. I am also thinking that I shall add Alicia and Tylar to my target group for a little boost.
It's April Fools Day tomorrow. Now that they all know stories in school journals are fiction, and articles are non-fiction, it might be time to do the Macaroni Forest article again!

Growth Mindset

I have to put these on really quickly and I will write up a proper post soon, I just needed to say that I absolutely am so very excited about what I learnt about growth mindsets at the Maths PD day and I keep finding more and more information about it which I find amazingly interesting! I am feeling very inspired by this!

Early Finishers and 5 x 10 Update

I have a couple of children who always seem to finish work to a high standard, and very quickly, so I turned my little shopping trolley into an early finishers cart. It's full of activities to extend those children, and I will add to it as they go through the activities (which are more challenging than my writing options, spelling options and "make & do" box.

I also saw a giant game of Boggle on Pinterest when I was looking for ideas for moving toys, got inspired, and made one for the classroom. This is a hit with the children, and might help the likes of William, who consistently gets 0/6 in his weekly spelling test. In fact, his results are so bad that I think I shall have to take it right back to rhyming words and focus on letter sounds, blends and vowels with him for a bit. Anyway, I need to purchase a 3 minute egg timer, then the children can run the game themselves in little groups when they've finished their work.

My little 5 x 10 group finished on Friday. I really thought that they were getting quicker at solving subtraction facts to 20. They loved the quick sessions, and competing against each other. They were all eager and focused and enthusiastic. So I was a little disappointed on the last day when we had a 10 minute session and played BINGO. Bingo cards were a 3 x 3 grid with basic addition and subtraction facts to 12. My group of 4 sat with their cards, insisting that no one needed a number 4. "No, none of us need that," "I'm waiting for a zero," (she actually needed a 12 as the equation she was focused on was 12 - 0) and, " what's the next number?" were the responses I got. Every single one of them needed a 4! 10 - 6, 3 + 1, 9 - 5 and 7 - 3! I am going to really push them for the next few weeks and see if I can get some progress!
We (senior school teachers) have decided to not do maths swap for numeracy anymore. It worked well, we got results, and it was nice getting to know children from other classes. But I think keeping our own classes will work well now that we can use the talk moves, and have problem solving groups, and we're still having professional development to help us make the most of these in the classroom. It will be interesting to see what happens by the end of the year, results wise. And I am actually quite pleased, it will make reports, interviews and assessment so much easier.   

Habits of Mind

The back wall was annoying me, it faced me, blankly, black and empty, and I intended to use the space for a Mantle of the Expert display. But then I had an idea...

We discussed the Habits we would focus on as a class, what fit with what we were doing, and chose 5. Listening with Understanding and Empathy will be a focus throughout the entire year and is not on the display currently, but these ones can be changed easily, I just have to make new speech bubbles! The children took photos and cut out their faces which were stuck onto coloured paper (some more accurately than others) and a velcro sticky dot on the back allows them to put their photos up when they've been practising a particular Habit in class. In order to keep record the children devised a tally chart that can be added up at the end of each month. This should work well. I have yet to decide on a reward system - they suggested McDonald's, but I can't bring myself to reward them with that (seems more like punishment to their health in the long run!) so perhaps I shall go book shopping and choose some nice books, then I can add a little certificate with it and hope that will be enough extrinsic reward, and motivation to keep practising those Habits!